Development

Chapter 5

Developmental Psychology

• Study of the patterns of growth and change that occur throughout life

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Developmental Psychology

Issue Details

Nature/Nurture

How do genetic inheritance (our nature)

and experience (the nurture we receive)

influence our behavior?

Continuity/Stages

Is development a gradual, continuous

process or a sequence of separate stages?

Stability/Change

Do our early personality traits persist through life, or do we become

different persons as we age.

Prenatal Development: Conception to Birth

• The Earliest Development• 9 weeks looks human • 6 months point at which it can survive if born

prematurely

Prenatal Development: Conception to Birth

• Prenatal Environmental Influences– Teratogens

• Mother’s nutrition (especially lack of folic acid)• Mother’s illness• Mother’s emotional state• Mother’s use of drugs• Alcohol

– Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)– Fetal alcohol effects (FAE)

• Nicotine use

The Extraordinary Newborn

• Reflexes– Unlearned, involuntary responses that occur

automatically in the presence of certain stimuli• Rooting reflex• Sucking reflex• Gag reflex• Startle reflex• Swallowing reflex

The Extraordinary Newborn

• Senses– All functional at birth, but vision is the least

developed

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Early Brain Development• Large increase in numbers of neurons • Connections grow between the neurons• Pruning: the connections and neurons that are not

used will die or become weakened• Myelination

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Early Brain Development• Experience Shapes the Brain

– brain structure and growth depends on genes and experiences

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Early Brain Development• Implications for Caregivers

– Early brain growth is rapid and reflects experience…• caressing a newborn,• talking to a preverbal infant

– …are essential to develop that person’s full

potential

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Motor Development

First, infants begin to roll over. Next, they sit unsupported, crawl, and finally walk. Experience has little effect on this sequence.

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Maturation and Infant Memory

The earliest age of conscious memory is around 3½ years (Bauer, 2002).

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Cognitive Development

Piaget believed that the driving force behind intellectual development is our biological development amidst experiences with the environment.

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Schemas

Schemas are mental molds into which we pour our experiences.

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Assimilation and Accommodation

Jean Piaget with a subject

Bill A

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Attachment

• Harry Harlow’s study on attachment– “Wire monkey versus

cloth monkey”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlfOecrr6kI

Figure 6 of Module 28

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Attachment Differences

Placed in a strange situation, 60% of children express secure attachment, i.e., they explore their environment happily in the presence of their mothers. When their mother leave, they show distress.

The other 30% show insecure attachment. These children cling to their mothers or caregivers and are less likely to explore the environment.

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Secure Attachment

Relaxed and attentive caregiving becomes the backbone of secure attachment.

Berry H

ewlett

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Deprivation of AttachmentIn such circumstances children become:

1. Withdrawn

2. Frightened

3. Unable to develop speech

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Child-Rearing Practices

Practice Description

AuthoritarianParents impose rules and

expect obedience.

Permissive Parents submit to children’s demands.

Authoritative Parents are demanding but responsive to their children.

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Authoritative Parenting

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AdolescenceA

P P

hoto/ Jeff Chiu

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Physical Development

Adolescence begins with puberty (sexual maturation). Puberty occurs earlier in females (11 years) than males (13 years). Thus height in females increases before males.

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Frontal Cortex

During adolescence, neurons in the frontal cortex grow myelin, which speeds up nerve conduction. The frontal cortex lags behind the limbic system’s development. Hormonal surges and the limbic system may explain occasional teen impulsiveness.

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Cognitive Development

Adolescents’ ability to reason gives them a new level of social awareness. In particular, they may think about the following:

1. Their own thinking.2. What others are thinking.3. What others are thinking about them.4. How ideals can be reached. They criticize society, parents, and

even themselves.

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Developing Reasoning Power

According to Piaget, adolescents can handle abstract problems.

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3 Basic Levels of Moral Thinking

1. Preconventional Morality:

2. Conventional Morality:

3. Postconventional Morality:

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Forming an Identity

In Western cultures, many adolescents try out different selves before settling into a consistent and comfortable identity. Having such an identity leads to forming close relationships.

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Emerging AdulthoodA

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AdulthoodR

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Middle Adulthood

Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory abilities and cardiac output begin to decline after the mid-twenties. Around age 50, women go through menopause, and men experience decreased levels of hormones and fertility.

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Aging and memory

• Normal healthy adults (even in the absence of disease) show age-related differences in performance on many cognitive tasks –Working memory–Episodic memory–Prospective memory–Executive functions

Short term memory

Long term memory for events

Memory for future events

A set of cognitive abilities that control and regulate other abilities and behaviors

It’s not all downhill

• Many cognitive functions are preserved with age such as:– Implicit memory–Semantic memory–Vocabulary

Memory without consciousness of it

Memory for facts

Vocabulary

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Aging and Intelligence

fluid intelligence (ability to reason speedily) declines with age, but crystalline intelligence (accumulated knowledge and skills) does not. We gain vocabulary and knowledge but lose recall memory and process more slowly.

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Aging and Intelligence

A number of cognitive abilities decline with age. However, vocabulary and general knowledge increase with age.

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Adulthood’s Ages and Stages

Is the mid-life crisis real?

Neuroticism scores, 10,000 subjects(McCrae & Costa, 1996).

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Adulthood’s Commitments

Happiness stems from working in a job that fits your interests and provides you with a sense of competence and accomplishment.

Charles H

arbutt/ Actuality

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Well-Being Across the Life Span

Well-being and people’s feelings of satisfaction are stable across the life span.

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Successful Aging

The Later Years of Life: Growing Old

• The Social World of Late Adulthood: Old but Not Alone– Activity Theory of Aging

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Death and Dying

Grief is more severe if death occurs unexpectedly. People who view their lives with a sense of integrity (in Erikson’s terms) see life as meaningful and worthwhile.

Chris S

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